Click on the arrows at the top or bottom of the page to enter the exhibit.

Mesmerized!

Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), a German physician who studied and first practiced in Vienna, developed a therapeutic system based on the idea that living bodies contain a magnetic fluid, and that by manipulating this fluid into a state of balance within the body, physical health could be restored. He called his system “Animal Magnetism”, and brought it to Paris in 1778, where within a few months he met with much popular success. Beginning in 1783, Mesmer and his closest associates organized several groups called Societies of Universal Harmony to promote and control the teaching and dissemination of his theories and techniques.

The French government and the medical establishment viewed Mesmer’s success and fame with skepticism and suspicion, so much so that in 1784 two commissions were appointed by King Louis XVI to investigate animal magnetism. Both groups concluded that the magnetic fluid did not exist and that any cures attributed to it were probably the result of peoples’ imaginations, or of nature taking her course. Their reports, published in August 1784 and quickly distributed widely, elicited a flood of pamphlets either criticizing the procedures of the two commissions and their conclusions, or criticizing Mesmer, his practices and theories, and satirizing the controversy that swirled around him.

Disillusioned with Paris, Mesmer traveled about Europe and eventually settled in his native Germany. He withdrew from active involvement with the system of clinics and societies set up to promulgate his ideas, but continued to practice animal magnetism for friends and neighbors until he died in 1815. The following extract from the journal of one Heinrich Schreiber, a young neighbor of Mesmer’s in 1815, paints an interesting picture of the old man at work. Schreiber writes:

I had suffered for some while with considerable hoarseness, with oppression of the chest, and coughing. I was therefore induced … to let myself be magnetized by Mesmer. The first strokes produced in me a mild feeling of flowing warmth …. At the same time Mesmer sat directly opposite me, knee to knee, his flashing and deeply penetrating gaze fixed incessantly on me, stroking downwards, fairly near me, with both hands, or only with the right hand or the thumb thereof. He also pressed both thumbs together directly on the pit of the stomach. Gradually sweat appeared on my chest and back. I felt a burning in the pit of the stomach, then an inclination to vomit. There followed strong coughing with plentiful expectoration, and an extraordinarily powerful, and quite involuntary, respiration…. Gradually the sensation ceased to be painful. I began to have a great inclination to sleep … So the crisis passed, and Mesmer amply compensated me for the discomfort with a masterly performance on the glass-harmonica. (Quoted in Gauld, 1992.)

This web exhibit is based on a handful of works from the Bakken’s extensive collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and journals documenting the mesmerist movement. It is largely a pictorial exhibit; viewers interested in reading further about Mesmer and mesmerism may click here to see a list of the works consulted in the preparation of this exhibit.

Click on the arrows at the top or bottom of the page to enter the exhibit.

Museum Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10 to 5
Thursdays 10 am to  8pm 
Closed Major Holidays
Library Hours: Monday - Friday 9 to 4:30

Admission: $7 Adults; $5 Students & Seniors; Children 3 and under are FREE!

© The Bakken Updated: April 6, 2007